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October 3

September 2016 Monthly Recap

Hi Squaddies,

September has sure gone by quickly hasn't it? Over here in Squad Dev-land we've been hard at work improving the Alpha Version 7 edition of the game (with the latest hotfix being 7.6, notes are viewable here.), as well as the next Alpha Version 8 where the primary focus is going to be on performance optimisations. We still have lots of tinkering left to do, but rest assured the team is 100% committed to improving your in-game experience. Without any further ado!

Systems

Server Browser Improvement

We now update the server browser asynchronously! In Alpha 7 and before, when you refreshed the server browser, the Steam Subsystem would wait until all the servers have been pinged and responded before displaying any servers to you. Now, we start showing you servers as soon as they respond to pings. This makes the server browser far more responsive to the player, and just feels better.

Alpha 7 Performance Analysis

One critical part of developing Alpha 8 has been pouring over performance data from Alpha 7. Under the hood in Alpha 7s development, we added a number of additional performance reporting metrics to help us dig into what areas needed optimization work the most. Using that data, we have been working hard on our performance bottlenecks, or the areas of the code where we are the most inefficient. In addition to profiling under a variety of conditions, we have been profiling Intel and AMD side by side under the same setup to make a concerted effort at improving our AMD performance.

Engine level Optimizations

Shout out to the guys over at Coconut Lizard for hosting an amazing blog with a number of low level Unreal Engine optimizations. We trawled through the material they have and integrated a number of impressive performance improvements. Squad now starts up about 2 times faster and map loading is noticeably faster as well. Thanks Coconut Lizard!

User Interface Optimizations

This month has been focused on doing improvements on the Radial Menu and Compass based on community feedback and the development roadmap. Our prime focus here has been to begin the rollout of the unified UI we have been working internally as well as improving usability and performance of the underlying code. We are not done with the radial menu nor the compass, so there is a lot to look forward to.The radial menu is now implemented with much fewer elements (Action Icon, selection icon and status icon) which allows us to do much less processing per widget and due to the simpler elements we have also been able to make the radial menu transparent which was a big wish for placing markers in the world.

Animated mockup of the desired end-product

The compass has gotten a code overhaul and all code is now entirely in C++ with a much more efficient implementation, and we are updating the artwork (layout, size, and ui elements are all subject to change) and features in this iteration, including the addition of markers to the compass.

Lastly we have rewritten the way that we update player/vehicle/flag icons on the map as well as how we track squads for the menu which has improved the execution time of the menu tremendously, this together with almost being finished with our c++ port of the spawn menu should help the speed we can implement UI features and the speed we can execute these at.

Animation Blueprint Improvement

Heaps of work has been done to optimise the current animation system, including moving a lot of the Blueprint over to C++, dramatically reducing the amount of processor time required to run animations on each character. Multiplied by the current player limit of 72 players, the savings in a full server look to be very promising.

As last additions to the current animation system, we've added a new first person crawling animation. Visually the movement should look a lot smoother and also slightly affect your accuracy shooting while on the move.

http://media.joinsquad.com/2016/Oct/SeptRecap/pronemovement.mp4

Another addition is a slight head tilt in Third Person while your aiming down the sights. You will finally able to see if the enemy is aiming at you and about to shoot you down.

http://media.joinsquad.com/2016/Oct/SeptRecap/adsanim.mp4

Art

British Armed Forces

We're excited to show off the beginnings of our British Armed Forces faction. A lot is planned in terms of art and assets for this faction, so please stay tuned to a later blog post about the Brits and how they will be integrated into the game.

SPG-9 Kopye Recoilless Gun

The SPG-9 is a Russian recoilless gun firing a 73mm rocket assisted projectile, capable of defeating most light and medium armoured threats. It is extremely accurate and with a well trained crew, can present a serious threat to enemy armour. We are planning an emplaced and a vehicle version of this weapon.

FGM-148 Javelin

While we're on the subject of rockets, we're planning our next level of heavy anti-tank weapons in the form of the FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Guided Missile. Capable of direct fire and also a unique top-down attack mode, this is a serious piece of modern hardware used to take down the heaviest of armor. This particular weapon system is still a while away, but we just couldnt resist showing this awesome piece of kit off.

Improvised Mobile Rocket Artillery

Even MORE rockets!

Basically a helicopter rocket pod mounted to the back of a technical, this system is capable of launching 32 S-5 dumb-fire rockets capable of dealing significant damage to infantry and light damage to vehicles. However its psychological impact cannot be denied. Due to the nature of its firing system, it is extremely inaccurate and most useful in suppressing a large area rather than killing specific targets.

http://media.joinsquad.com/2016/Oct/SeptRecap/rockettechiefiring.mp4

Environment Art

Our environment team has been bolstered with a few more talented artists, and is working hard at creating more assets to flesh out the Eastern European theatre.

Mapping

Map Lighting Overhaul

As we like to work in iterative passes, this past month we moved all of our maps to a new lighting system that makes use of photographic skyboxes. Down the line we hope to keep improving our lighting and atmosphere in our maps.

Our talented modders have been real busy behind the scenes working away at their own total conversions and projects. They have their own version of Monthly Recaps in the form of The Wrench, so please check out the write up and support the work of the next generation!

The Post Scriptum mod developers have also released their first Developer Blog showing off for the first time their game in motion with characters, weapons and even vehicles! We're just as excited as they are that so much progress has been made on their end when it comes to mod development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbQ2PK1I6GQ

Offworld Out.

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Most Helpful Reviews In the past 30 days

Wook MT

77 products in account

3 reviews

Posted: September 26

I've been seeing a lot of negative criticism in the reviews lately, some of it is valid and some isn't. I'd like to offer some accurate (hopefully) feedback for people on the fence when considering this game.

- The current state of the game's performance leaves a lot to be desired. Even with a beastly rig you will be looking at sub 60 fps in a 72 player server. Anything under 50 players runs pretty darn well though. The bottleneck is not your system as I've observed, but possibly the servers. I will alter graphical settings and my gpu/cpu usage and fps will not rise or fall. The devs have stated that in upcoming releases performance will be a priority as their goal is stable 100 player servers. Only time will tell.

- AMD CPU users need to be blaming Epic and their Unreal Engine 4 for any abnormal performance they encounter. This is not something the Squad devs have done poorly. There are slight workarounds currently but if I were an AMD user I would hold off until more recent engine updates are applied to the game.

- There is a direct correlation to how much fun you have in this game and how cohesive your squad is. This lies solely on the shoulders of your squad leader and the members being able to follow orders. You will have bad squad leaders, you will have excellent squad leaders. You will have ♥♥♥♥ teammates, you will have excellent teammates. There will be victories where you will revel in the glory of defeating an opponent using teamwork and cunning tactics instead of k/d ratio. There will be defeats where you will be absolutely slaughtered by a superior force that out maneuvered you. This FPS is rewarding in ways that cannot be described until experienced yourself and the amazing thing is it's still in Alpha.

- The release of vehicles have caused critical error crashing to occur for many people. I consider this normal of a game this scope still under development, it appears that crashing in an Alpha is unaccpeptable to some. I recommend to those people just refund and wait for more releases. From a gameplay perspective, the meta for vehicles will be ever evolving, especially while so many squad leaders are inexperienced. When more veterans are developed things will get much better. The future is quite bright.

I'll add more if I think of anything, feel free to message me any questions you have regarding Squad. I recommend this game because of the void it filled for me. The old America's Army mixed with Insurgency and Arma. If that sounds like it interests you then you won't regret the purchase. Cheers.

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[RIP] Tanaka

104 products in account

4 reviews

Posted: September 18

best shooter/tactical game

It's like Arma 2 with old Americas Army. Even COOP with other players is still good

needfood

46 products in account

1 review

Posted: September 20

Reading reviews for this game recently has made me doubt the intelligence of buyers. They ask for refunds because they bought an unfinished game. IT IS IN EARLY ACCESS. Conceptual this game is amazing and the teamwork in game is beautiful. Squad has huge potential and I don't have a single regret paying 40 bucks for it. I urge people to be patient and look at the elements of gameplay not if you are running at +60 fps all the time. There will be crashes, and when people write negative reviews on an Alpha purely based off its performance isn't a review; it's misunderstanding of what they were buying. Buy it if you believe this game has a future and want to ensure it. Don't if you want a finished game immediately.

|HSR| lisiec

468 products in account

5 reviews

Posted: September 22

Cause of squad I've forgotten about all other online FPS.
Communication, tactics, authenticity and realism, that's Squad.

TheZenWalker

83 products in account

I love the game... but the only problem is the lack of coordination of the squad leaders. There really needs to be a commander position. Give it the ability to call in UAV's or something, I dunno.

But he needs to be able to issue orders to the squad leaders, and be able to give the team cohesion.

Melvin Spearchucker

220 products in account

Posted: September 11

I'm absolutely in love with this game. Basically this is Battlefield, only realistic.

+ no high speed sprinting, also it's limited.
+ very good and realistic weapon handling(strong recoil)
+ no fancy high tech visors, aiming is challenging.
+ large scale maps which require tactical maneuvering with full Squads also strategic points that can be fortified. Maps for now are 4 Eastern European and 4 Middle eastern maps. The middle eastern ones are mostly Opium Fields and villages, valleys and such. One map is a large middle eastern city only. The middle eastern ones are mostly forests and plains, also some villages or large Industrial Compounds, like a railroad or a large lumber mill. An eastern european City Map is also planned for the future. Anyway 8 maps seem small but they are huge and very detailed. Combat differs on which location you are on the map.
+ Vehicles, not only Combatvehicles which help Infantry advance but also Logistic vehicles which are needed to fortify positions. Flying vehicles are planned for the future.
+ Basebulding and setting up defence positions with sandbags and heavy machine guns. Mortars are also planned for the future.
+ very intense and realistic firefights.
+ Community is great most of the time. Some Squadleaders can be harsh but just don't take it too personally. Oh and btw communication is a MUST. You don't have to constantly talk but some responses or calls at least would be cool.
+ the sounds are INCREDIBLE. Probably the most realistic I have ever heard in a game. You can really hear a gunfight from the other side of the map and know ♥♥♥♥ is going down.
+ explosions and other effects(like smoke) are also amazing and very realistic.
+ Factions are very detailed. For now you have the Russian Army, Russian militias (kinda like them seperatists in the Ukraine), US Army and Middle Eastern Insurgents. I hated how the US looked at first but they updated them and they look awsome now! Also there are more factions coming up (like the Royal Army). Personally I'm hoping for Israelis.
+ Develepors keep you up to date and since I started playing they did change alot of stuff and updated it alot.

- many people seem to have performance Issues, especially AMD users. I for myself don't have any performance problems (i7-4790k 16 gb ram, GTX770) except on Gorodok where I have some fps drops. Also the AA doesn't seem to work properly which sucks sometimes cause it makes spotting enemies harder from far away.
- Vehicle physics are currently in bad state, like ArmA 1 and 2 bad. But the Vehicles are brand new so they will probably get better physics on them some time. Anyway it's nothing gamebreaking, it just can be annoying sometimes.
- I wish you could put your weapon on a cover to steady your aim. Cause most of the time you shoot against the cover instead of over it if you're behind sandbags for instance. Honestly I have no Idea if they are going to change that but they probably will cause I can't be the only who sees a problem with that.
- also I think you should be able to jump/slide over cover instead of trying to jump over it in a clunky way with your entire body exposed, which is how it's handled right now. But I also think they are not going to leave it like that.

All in all this game has HUGE potential and even in it's current state it's incredibly fun. If you like these sort of games you should definitely support it.

Tybost

78 products in account

**This game is in Alpha** and for AMD CPU owners it will run like ♥♥♥♥. I only get 15-25 frames on full 72 servers AMD FX-8350 4.5*OC/GTX-1060 6GB since V7. However, even with low FPS the game is really fun to play.

V8 promises performance improvements.

I've played over 300 hours and while my FPS has always been under 45, my overall experience has been a positive one 90% plus of the time. Squad is one of those unique games where teamwork is a must, and going rambo and not joining a Squad is frowned upon.

You do not have to plugin a microphone to enjoy this game, as I personally have played without one since buying the game. Follow your Squad Leader and do what H/She says and you'll be fine. ;)

players gonna play

88 products in account

9 reviews

recommended, because this is the spiritual successor to bf2's project reality and getting the job almost perfectly done in this regard. the performance is abysmal for the while being and really the only downside - especially for amd cpus or cpus that lack single core performance, but overall for an alpha its quite ok. it runs the latest unreal engine and that alone gives a great ammount of potential. its good to support this game via early access and maybe its one of the few, where it really matters, because the developers basically seem to be on the right way. oh yeah, and it has an awesome soundtrack.

squad, i believe in you! the final or even beta will set things right. go go go!

KRIKY

9 products in account

Love this game, very authentic, addictive, great interphase and for alpha version is really awesome. Can't wait for final product is gonna be insane.

JEchoPapa

32 products in account

Posted: September 19

This just became my favorite game. Communication. Team work. Objective based. Quality FPS. Realistic.

Can't wait for this game to be fully complete.

Recently Posted

Posted: October 10

I cant walk around the city anymore after buying this game. I just scream "LAZO GET THE ♥♥♥♥ DOWN" then I start to cry.
My friend died right next to me by a sniper. I may have a problem.

Helpful? Yes No Funny

Great Game

I have a gtx 780 and yet this game after an update started to have serious lag spikes, tried every fix and nothing worked. Idk what they did but they screwed me over.

Posted: October 9

Nice and realistic FPS tactical game for an alpha.

All I have to say about this game is that its great the people on there are great and teamwork is key and there is not to many glitches but the biggest problem of the game is the optimization it doesent matter what pc you have you will get only about 25 frames.

Squad has so much potential.

Traveling with my squad leader deep into enemy territory, cut off from supplies or help. Crazy, or brilliant? We get slaughtered. But we had fun.

Simply the best tactical teamwork multiplayer game since Project Reality (derp).

Now that the game has been out for a while, the number of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s has massively reduced... servers are no longer cesspits of moronic behaviour or constant shouts of 'allahu akbar' and, for Australians, BigD continue to host a friendly teamwork server that has tight rules and vigilant admins to keep it clean (note they operate by donation too, so if you're right into the game, throw them a few more dollars for their good work).

Here's a typical round based on a forum post of mine on PlayerAttack.com;

"We made a superFOB on Chakar Kot, but no-one drove a logi up so we couldn't build any defensive emplacements. Our squad was on D, with a brief excursion to our north to lay a second FOB. Someone called out hostile contact to the East which seemed impossible given we surely would have seen them go past us (left to right), but I saw and shot a dude, and nearby found an enemy FOB. Managed to dig it out while a squad member stood right above me, blazing away at new spawns, while another teammate provided overwatch from a nearby hillock.

Then it was onto the middle flag where we were just getting pumped from every direction, and this is where being a medic becomes almost as much fun for me as laying down fire. Smoke, bandage, heal, smoke, bandage, heal, I made a lot of friends tonight and saved us a lot of tickets.

We eventually got pushed off that point and the US again proved strategically superior to our team as they got a squad onto the Radio Tower before we even showed up and dig in. From there it was a brutal close-quarters firefight until the tickets finally drained to zero. We lost the round by 37 tickets but by christ did we do a good job in preventing it from happening sooner."

Get on it.

Posted: October 8

Games runs at 20FPS regardless of settings on a pretty insane computer. Just another game that will forever stay in "alpha" while taking your money for a poorly developed game.

This game is amazing. The realism is perfect and the sounds are just amazing as well as the textures and the over all game enviroment. Wish they would make it a little better for amd card but its a very good game!

Great for milsim

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October 3

September 2016 Monthly Recap

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Hotfix Release: Alpha 7.6

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